Thursday, September 15, 2011

Four Swords Anniversary Edition Screenshot Analysis

Here you can find many screenshots of the upcoming DSiWare version of Four Swords. Instead of just dumping all screenshots here like other sites do, I'll only post some of them, but add a detailed analysis.

That's a screenshot of the multiplayer inside Talus Cave. You can clearly see, that they used the touchscreen for the map menu. In the GBA version you would get a transparent map menu by pressing L. There aren't any details on the map, because of the randomisation. It only shows the location of the other players and the goal, so that's normal. They changed the icon for the goal, originally it was a Heart Container, now it's a flag pole. Maybe they did this, because the Heart Container was misleading, since only one player can get the Heart Container. Or maybe it's because of the new stages, which don't have bosses, so the final floor probably only has a goal, but no Heart Container.

In case you wonder, what the stuff on the left and right side is good for, I explain it for you. On the left are your Sword, Armor and Speed levels. You increase them by collecting the red Razor Seeds, the blue Armor Seeds and the green Pegasus Seeds. Those are randomly distributed over the course of the entire stage and they give you a good advantage. However, much like the Heart Containers or for example the Blue Bracelet in Four Swords Adventures they will be gone as soon as you leave or finish the stage. On the right side are Rupee Shards. They are like Heart Pieces only that they form a huge golden Rupee worth 500 Rupees, when one player collects four of them. That's the most valuable Rupee in the game. They are also randomly distributed and sometimes it's wise to let a player grab one of them instead of taking it yourself, in case the other player already has three.

On the lower left you can see a small wireless connection icon, which indicates that this is a multiplayer game. Then there's the name of the stage, the floor number and the time.

Player 2 (the red Link) is a n00b, because he tries to pull a block. That never works. Shot is from the Sea of Trees stage. That one was always my favorite, except for the boss. Manhandla is the most annoying boss out of the four, I wonder how the fight will work in singleplayer.

Okay, this one is from the singleplayer. You can easily tell, because on the top right there are two items shown instead of one. Green Link got the Roc's Cape, Red Link got the Shield. You might wonder, why both Links don't have the same item, just like in Four Swords Adventures. Well, unlike in FSA sometimes interaction between different items is needed. For example one player has to get a Gnat Hat to go through a Minish tunnel. On the other side there are bombable blocks and another player now has to toss bombs to the player with the Gnat Hat, so he can destroy the blocks. But right now both Links are pushing a large block through Vaati's Palace. You can also see that the player already collected one Rupee Shard.

That's another singleplayer shot from Death Mountain. As you can see, the Links now raise their swords into the air while standing on a switch like they do in Four Swords Adventures. I mentioned this earlier, that this was not in the original game.

Those are shots from the Realm of Memories stage. The extra stages will have three doors similar to Vaati's Palace. You have to beat what's behind each door to beat the entire stage and get the sword move. Door 1 will have floors from A Link to the Past. Door 2 leads to the Link's Awakening area and door 3 to the classic NES Zelda area. These shots were taken from the 1st and 2nd floors of the A Link to the Past area. Both take place at or in Hyrule Castle, I hope the 3rd floor will be something different, like Eastern Palace for example.

Each stage has it's own icon. The icon is show on the stage selection, the lower map screen and on large switches on the floor. The icon of the Realm of Memories stage is a Triforce.

That's the result screen from multiplayer. It's so interesting, because the lower screen basically shows your save file. You got your name and everything, which you have unlocked. Under your name you can see icons for the Hurricane Spin Attack and the Sword Beam. They are the same as in the original. Next to them are the icons for the new stages. It looks like the Hero's Trial will have a scimitar as its icon. On the top right there's the number of Medals of Courage and your keys. All players got silver keys from the Sea of Trees and Talus Cave. Below that there's the total amount of Rupees. I doubt that this is the current score, because that would mean that they have collected 9907 Rupees in one stage, which should be impossible. It also wouldn't match with the current rankings. And Four Swords AE now got a total score of Rupees, you need to collect 30,000 Rupees alltogether to unlock the Hero's Trial.

This is the new stage selection screen. You can compare it with the screen in this post and you can clearly see how they added the new stages. There's a huge Triforce hovering above the Sea of Trees, which is also currently selected. This one is the Realm of Memories. The indicator next to it shows how many doors/parts of the stage have been beaten, in this case only the A Link to the Past section.

And then they added this tower complex to the east coast. I guess this is the Hero's Trial and this location really fits best, because it's right above the tutorial level, the Chamber of Insights. So, basically the easiest and the hardest level of the game are right next to each other, I love this. And this was similar in Oracle of Seasons, the first game made by Flagship, who also made the original Four Swords. In an unlinked game the "Hero's Cave" would be your tutorial level. And in a linked game the "Hero's Cave" would turn into the most challenging dungeon. After all the "Hero's Trial" seems to be inspired by the Hero's Caves in the Oracle saga, so this is really fitting.

So, that's it for now. I hope I could give you some insights about what you can expect. If there are any more questions, feel free to ask.